Reverend Ted Haggard, the president of a 30 million member association and spiritual leader of a 14,000 member New Life Church, admitted to purchasing methamphetamine because he was
curious. He has denied allegations of homosexual activity with a gay man who gave him a massage(s)and he has done it
again. However this blogger who is old enough to remember
Jim and Tammy Faye Baker,
Jimmy Swaggart,
Jim Jones and
David Koresh…is far from surprised. Here is the kicker, the longer we wait the more the Haggard story will unfold.
Spiritual advisers including Ted Haggard are men and women first. They are not endowed with the power to walk on water, throw lightning bolts or request the plagues of Moses. They will continue to have their faults. These imperfect individuals are not gatekeepers of my salvation, but the brunt of my jokes and if I ever
do attend church I would request from my pastor a background check, a copy of his last drug screen and proof of residence. It's called trust but verify.
A British historian named
Lord Acton said it best, “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Mind you, not
all of the spiritual leaders are corrupt. But in my opinion there are quite a few. I could start counting but I would reach my personal blog word limit before I stopped. And the debauchery is not new, because as a kid growing up in the Deep South, I remember over hearing that there were two people who you didn’t let in your house: Insurance Salesmen and Preachers, because one would steal your money and the other your money
and your honey [that’s honey in the figurative term, not beekeepers honey for all you northerners.]
Personally I have my own religion I have detailed in an earlier blog. So I don’t even flinch when yet another
fallen preacher has spent thousands on cocaine. Has a mistress. Has a gay lover. Or got caught drunk driving with his mistress and gay lover. I don’t pay tithes, so my hard earned money is not wasted on luxury automobiles or 3,000 dollar Ralph Lauren suits. All because the last time I checked, Jesus ran the money changers
out of the temple, and somehow they crept back in.
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~Vale~
